Enacting the proposed national security law to protect the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region against separatism and secession is totally within the authority of China as a sovereign power, local legal expert Alan Hoo Hong-ching said.
Hoo condemned meddling by foreign powers, led by the United States and Britain, saying they have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of China and the HKSAR. Hoo said the sanctions these countries are threatening to impose are illegal.
Using Hong Kong as a subversive base to unsettle China, these foreign powers backed and financed the opposition camp
Alan Hoo Hong-ching
a senior counsel and the chairman of Basic Law Institute
Hoo, a senior counsel and the chairman of Basic Law Institute, said Britain and the US claim that the national security legislation is in conflict with the Sino-British Joint Declaration, but they have not said what these conflicts are.
“In fact, the joint declaration made no mention or any discussion on the enactment of national security law,” he told China Daily in an exclusive interview.
“The foreign powers also claim that national security legislation will infringe civic freedoms, including freedom of expression, as stipulated in the International Covenant on Civic and Political Rights. However, they should read carefully (and note) that the exercise of such freedoms is subject to reasonable restrictions provided by the law, such as those relating to national security public safety, public health or morals,” Hoo said.
Moreover, Britain has not been able to provide plausible reasons why the national security legislation violates the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. The US was not even a signatory to the joint declaration, he added.
“For me and the Chinese people, the joint declaration fulfilled its role in history. It was no longer a valid document after the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China passed the Hong Kong Basic Law on April 4, 1990.” he said.
“It is purely for benefit of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (comprising the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand) so they can oppose national security legislation in Hong Kong,” he said.
“Using Hong Kong as a subversive base to unsettle China, these foreign powers backed and financed the opposition camp, the ‘pan-democrats’ and violent protesters dressed in black who rioted in Hong Kong,” he argued.
Hoo also said that as far as the US is concerned, it has only trade relations with Hong Kong but nothing else. Hong Kong is a free trade port and a separate tariffs area from the Chinese mainland, he said.
In 1992, the US enacted the Hong Kong Policy Act, but this is at best a bilateral trade and economic agreement, the legal expert said.
“When the World Trade Organization was established in 1995, Hong Kong was one of the founding members. The US was also a founding member and so Hong Kong has equal status with the US, with all the trade benefits being bilateral benefits that will be enjoyed by all the other members,” Hoo said.
“The provisions of the Hong Kong Policy Act have been superseded. It is ridiculous and naive for the US to threaten to sanction Hong Kong today. Can the US alone apply whatever economic sanctions to Hong Kong the way it likes without reference to WTO regulations?
“This is why some people suggest China or Hong Kong should complain to the WTO about the US,” he added.
